Dona Perfecta eBook

Up to a certain time, I believe, Galdos wrote romantic
or idealistic novels, and one of these I have read,
and it tired me very much. It was called “Marianela,”
and it surprised me the more because I was already
acquainted with his later work, which is all realistic.
But one does not turn realist in a single night, and
although the change in Galdos was rapid it was not
quite a lightning change; perhaps because it was not
merely an outward change, but artistically a change
of heart. His acceptance in his quality of realist
was much more instant than his conversion, and vastly
wider; for we are told by the critic whom I have been
quoting that Galdos’s earlier efforts, which
he called Episodios Nacionales, never had the
vogue which his realistic novels have enjoyed.

These were, indeed, tendencious, if I may Anglicize
a very necessary word from the Spanish tendencioso.
That is, they dealt with very obvious problems, and
had very distinct and poignant significations, at
least in the case of “Dona Perfecta,” “Leon
Roch,” and “Gloria.” In still
later novels, Emilia Pardo-Bazan thinks, he has comprehended
that “the novel of to-day must take note of
the ambient truth, and realize the beautiful with
freedom and independence.” This valiant
lady, in the campaign for realism which she made under
the title of “La Cuestion Palpitante”—­one
of the best and strongest books on the subject—­counts
him first among Spanish realists, as Clarin counts
him first among Spanish novelists. “With
a certain fundamental humanity,” she says, “a
certain magisterial simplicity in his creations, with
the natural tendency of his clear intelligence toward
the truth, and with the frankness of his observation,
the great novelist was always disposed to pass over
to realism with arms and munitions; but his aesthetic
inclinations were idealistic, and only in his latest
works has he adopted the method of the modern novel,
fathomed more and more the human heart, and broken
once for all with the picturesque and with the typical
personages, to embrace the earth we tread.”

For her, as I confess for me, “Dona Perfecta”
is not realistic enough—­realistic as it
is; for realism at its best is not tendencious.
It does not seek to grapple with human problems, but
is richly content with portraying human experiences;
and I think Senora Pardo-Bazan is right in regarding
“Dona Perfecta” as transitional, and of
a period when the author had not yet assimilated in
its fullest meaning the faith he had imbibed.

II

Yet it is a great novel, as I said; and perhaps because
it is transitional it will please the greater number
who never really arrive anywhere, and who like to
find themselves in good company en route.
It is so far like life that it is full of significations
which pass beyond the persons and actions involved,
and envelop the reader, as if he too were a character
of the book, or rather as if its persons were men